14 
NATURE 
(May 4, 1899 
They have, therefore, arranged for the delivery of two Commem- 
oration Lectures. The first of these lectures will be delivered 
at three o’clock on Tuesday, June 6, by Lord Rayleigh, when 
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Vice-Patron of the 
Institution, will preside and receive the honorary members ; the 
second of these lectures will be delivered at nine o’clock on 
Wednesday evening, June 7, by Prof. Dewar, when His Grace 
the Duke of Northumberland, President of the Institution, will 
preside. It was further announced that the Lord Mayor has 
consented to give a reception to the members, foreign guests, 
and representative men, at the Mansion House, on the evening 
of Tuesday, June 6. 
IN a brief reference to the recent scientific work of the Royal 
Institution, Prof. Dewar announced on Monday that having 
obtained liquid hydrogen in considerable quantity, he has directly 
determined its temperature and other physical constants, finding 
its boiling point to be much lower than was previously supposed, 
namely 20° above the zero of absolute temperature, and attaining 
by exhaustion a temperature of only 15° absolute. Pending the 
discovery in quantity of some yet lighter gas, there are no means 
within sight of bridging this gap and reaching the zero point. 
Prof. Dewar also took occasion to give a warning against the 
exaggerated accounts of the properties of liquid air, which, 
originating in America, have found their way into popular 
magazines in this country. 
THE Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery have received, 
under the will of the late Colonel John Barrow, F.R.S., 
formerly of the Admiralty, a bequest of a series of portraits, 
painted for Colonel Barrow by Mr. Stephen Pearce, relating to 
the various expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin. The 
portraits comprise a large portrait-group representing ‘‘ The 
Arctic Council’? ‘‘discussing a plan of search for Sir John 
Franklin”; four large half-length portraits, representing Sir 
Robert McClure, Sir Leopold McClintock, Captain Penny, and 
Sir George Nares, each in the dress worn by him in the Arctic 
regions ; fifteen small portraits of Sir Richard Collinson, Sir 
Henry Kellett, Sir Edward Belcher, Sir Edward Inglefield, Dr. 
John Rae, Captain Rochfort-Maguire, Captain J. E. Moore, 
Dr. Robert McCormick, Lieut. J. Stewart, Lieut. Bellot, 
Sir Horatio T. Austin, Admiral Sherard Osborn, Dr. William 
Kennedy, Sir Leopold McClintock, and Sir Erasmus Om- 
manney. 
THE Report of the Council of the Zoological Societys read at 
the seventieth anniversary meeting held on Friday last, stated 
that the number of Fellows on December 31, 1898, was 3185, 
showing an increase of twenty-seven during the past year, and 
that the number of Fellows on the roll of the Society was in 
excess of what it had been in any year since 1885. The 
principal new buildings erected in the Society’s Gardens in 1898 
were the Fellows’ tea pavilion, the new Ilama-house, and the 
new zebra-house, all of which are well adapted to the purpose 
for which they were intended, The number of visitors to the 
Gardens was 710,948. The number of animals living in the 
Gardens at the end of the year was 2656, of which 818 were 
mammals, 1363 birds, and 475 reptiles and batrachians. Dr. 
John Anderson, F.R.S., Mr. W. E. de Winton, Dr. Charles H. 
Gatty, Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G., and Dr. Henry Woodward, 
F.R.S., were elected into the Council in the place of the retiring 
members, and his Grace the Duke of Bedford and Mr, Edward 
N. Buxton, elected into the Council since the last anniversary, 
were re-elected ; also Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S., 
was re-elected President, Mr. Charles Drummond, Treasurer, 
and Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., as Secretary. 
Ar the annual general meeting of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, held on April 26, Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., 
NO. 1540, VOL. 60] 
President, in the chair, the result of the' ballot for the election 
of officers was declared as follows:—President, Sir Douglas 
Fox ; vice-presidents, Mr. James Mansergh, Sir William White, 
K.C.B., Mr. Charles Hawksley, and Mr. John Clarke Hawk- 
shaw ; other members of Council, Mr. James Barton (Dundalk), 
Mr. Horace Bell, Sir Alexander Binnie, Dr. Henry Taylor 
Bovey, Mr. T. Forster Brown, Mr. W. R. Galbraith, Mr. 
George Graham, Mr. G. H. Hill, Mr. J. C. Inglis, Mr- 
Alexander Izat, Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., Sir James 
Kitson, Bart., Mr. Anthony George Lyster, Mr. John Allen 
McDonald, Mr. E. Pritchard Martin, Mr. William Matthews, 
Sir Guilford Molesworth, K.C.I.E., Sir Andrew Noble, 
K.C.B., Mr. Alexander Siemens, Mr. Thomas Stewart, Mr. 
John I. Thornycroft, F.R.S., Mr. William Thwaites, Mr. F-. 
W. Webb, and Sir E. Leader Williams. 
THE Royal College of Surgeons of England has unsuccessfully 
appealed against the decision of the Court of Queen’s Bench 
upon the subject of its liability to property duty in respect of part 
of the property held by it for the public objects of the institution. 
A strong protest is made against this result in the Zavcet. It is 
pointed out that the College is a body incorporated by Royal 
Charter, the object being the ‘‘ benefit of the common weal of this 
kingdom by the promotion of the art and science of surgery and 
the due promotion and encouragement of the study and practice 
of the said art and science of surgery.” To the attainment of this 
object all its funds are legally appropriated and actually applied ; 
nevertheless, the courts have decided to exclude the College 
from the benefits of an exception created by the Act of Par- 
liament in favour of ‘‘any property legally appropriated and 
applied for . . . the promotion of science.” The decision 
distinguishes between the museum and the library in Lincoln’s 
Inn, and while it protects the museum as being devoted 
to the promotion of the science of surgesy, the library is 
regarded as for the private convenience or advantage of the: 
members of the College. The Zamce¢ points out that eight 
or nine years ago the question arose as to whether the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers was, in circumstances almost precisely 
parallel to those of the Royal College of Surgeons at the present 
day, liable to the same duty, Fortunately for that institution, the 
House of Lords held that applied science, no less than the pure 
sciences, fell within the meaning of the Act, and sustained the 
claim to exemption in spite of the professional eminence and 
social success of its members. The Royal College of Surgeons 
is less fortunate in its present situation. 
THE death is announced of Dr. C. Brongniart, Paris, dis- 
tinguished by his entomological works, and more especially by 
his memoir on fossil insects of the Primary period. 
ACCORDING to a despatch from St. Louis a very destructive 
cyclone swept over Kirksville, Missouri, on Thursday last. The 
storm broke about 6.30 p.m. with great fury, sweeping a path 
a quarter of a mile broad through the eastern portion of the 
town, four hundred buildings being demolished. Heavy rain 
followed, accompanied by intense darkness. 
Dr. Lupwic BUCHNER, of Darmstadt, the author of * Kraft 
und Stoff” (1855), a work which did much to popularise 
scientific materialism in Germany, died on Monday, at seventy- 
five years of age. Dr. Biichner was one of the most meritorious 
popularisers of natural science in Germany, and greatly assisted 
in diffusing a knowledge of the Darwinian theories in the 
Fatheriand. 
THE death is announced of Mr. Charles Leeson Prince, of 
Crowborough, Sussex, whose meteorological has on 
several occasions been referred to in these columns. Mr. 
Prince was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 
a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. For many years 
work 
